Nine Weeks Four Days Old

As of last night, Emily weighed 1180 grams (2 lbs, 10 oz.)! Her feeds have also been increased to 15 cc’s every two hours.

Emily had a good day most of Wednesday, but later that evening started desatting badly and needed to have her O2 and MAP (mean airway pressure) increased. Today, she was back down to breathing 40% oxygen, but they have not reduced her pressures. Her doctor says that the reason for this is different than the reason for raising her pressure several weeks ago. Apparently her x-ray on Saturday was slightly improved, but showed pockets of collapsed lung. Her x-ray this morning showed that her lungs were properly inflated, so the doctor is reluctant to reduce her MAP at this point. If she contintues to have good blood O2 saturation levels and her nurse tonight can wean her oxygen some more, they will reconsider whether or not to reduce her MAP.

Emily also had some massive bowel movements today, the size of which have apparently safely ensured her place in the annals of the Pennsylvania Hospital Intesive Care Nursery. While her nurse was changing her diaper this morning Emily wasn’t quite finished. All we were able to get out of the nurses was that there was some sort of explosion in which Emily got the ceiling and walls of her isolette dirty. The nurses were unable to clean her isolette with her in it, and had to exchange it for another one, kicking another baby out of it in the process. The good news is that the top comes off of her new isolette, which should make the nurses happy. Not content with her early morning exploits, Emily had three more full diapers today, the last one weighing in at a record (for her) of 48 grams. Needless to say, she probably doesn’t weight 1180 grams anymore, but likely won’t be weighed tonight.

Tony